As the winter of 1893-94 set in, the young Russian pianist and composer Alexander Scriabin was miserable. A year earlier, he was to have undertaken a concert tour, but recurrent pain in his right hand had forced him to cancel. Doctors had prescribed a quiet sojourn in a hot southern...

Many bands got their start by making some noise in their parent’s garage. And most of those bands rarely make it out of the garage. But in Wisconsin in the 1960s garage bands were popping up all over the state. One of the state’s most successful and long-lasting of those...

It was as if Parisians were determined to put the bad times behind them with parties that would drown out the noise of the past. The bloody labor revolt of 1848 had brought in a Second Republic opposed to most reforms. A presidential election had brought in Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew...

Niklas Paschburg's debut album, Oceanic , will likely be one of the most beautiful records of 2018. Recorded in his makeshift studio overlooking the Baltic Sea, the 23-year old pianist and electronic musician says he wanted the songs to reflect both the unique space where they were recorded and the...

When it comes down to it, language is the heart of rap. That's why rappers in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, insist their city is the heart of Chinese rap. The language of Chengdu, Sichuanese, is an emotive, drawling dialect of Mandarin — so wildly different from its rigid-sounding...

After a grueling concert tour of Great Britain, Johann Strauss had faced a rebellious orchestra and suffered a physical breakdown. After his return to Vienna to recuperate in the winter of 1839, his shattered health and tattered finances gave him no alternative but to lie in his sickbed and hope...

Johann Strauss the Elder and his orchestra had come to London to perform for the coronation of Queen Victoria, but before playing a note, he had been hauled into court over a dispute with an unprincipled hotel proprietor. He won the case, but Strauss was compelled to pay the court...

Has anyone ever watched the Grammy's and concluded that the Recording Academy really nailed it? ( No one has ever concluded they nailed it ). So we begin this episode of All Songs Considered with a simple question: Why keep watching?! It's like being addicted to disappointment and outrage. The...

The 60th Annual Grammy Awards brought performances by Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Childish Gambino and more. In addition to the music, stars brought statements of solidarity and definite nods to social justice movements like #metoo. We take a look at what this year's Grammy Awards had to offer us with...

So, you've probably already heard the disheartening news about "Despacito." Despite three major nominations — Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group — and unprecedented streaming and the most YouTube views of all time, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee didn't...

Was it the crowning of the new king, George II, or something in the air that made London audiences tire of Italian music, operas in particular, in 1727? Whatever it was, George Frederick Handel pressed on in spite of it and continued to produce operas until he and his backers...

Joe Jencks was recently in WPR's Wausau studio with Dan Robinson to share his music and talk about where he draws inspiration for his songwriting. An 18-year veteran of the folk music circuit, Joe is well-known for his solo work as well as his time with the trio Brother Sun.

In the fall of 1830, composer Frédéric Chopin left his home in Poland for a visit to Italy. When he was in Vienna he heard news of an uprising in Warsaw resisting the subservience of the Kingdom of Poland to Russia and opposing the presence of the Russian Tsar on...

In the 1870s Hans von Bülow was one of Europe’s great conductors and an outspoken advocate of democracy. When the Russian Musical Society asked him to direct some concerts in St. Petersburg, he found himself on a collision course with Grand Duke Constantine, president of the Russian Musical Society, the...

Clara Schumann was one of Europe’s great pianists. The widow of Robert Schumann was also the closest friend of Johannes Brahms, and she wrote to him from Vienna on January 24, 1866: The financial situation here seems to be pretty bad and yet all of the concerts are well attended...

Antonio Vivaldi taught at Venice’s Ospedale della Pietà, an institution for orphaned or abandoned girls, but he had further ambitions, and so he also began managing the San Angelo Theater as a producer of operas. At the same time, he was also a good salesman, and, on one occasion, he...